CHENNAI: The Cyber Crime Wing (CCW) of the City Police on Saturday arrested two persons who claimed to be casting agents representing a famous film production company and cheated aspiring actors of several lakhs of rupees by luring them through Instagram.
A representative of the film production company stated in their complaint that an individual has been misusing their company’s name and cheating aspiring actors.
The duo lured several persons into transferring money to the fraudster via UPI promising them of acting opportunity in the production company’s next feature film production.
“The fraudster has an Instagram page ‘filmcinemaads' in which he shared posts about casting and contacted several people from the phone number 8825884963 via WhatsApp and lured them into sending him money for providing acting opportunities,” the complainant stated.
Based on the investigation, the KYC of the bank account linked with the suspect's Paytm ID was obtained and ATM CCTV footage of the suspect operating bank account was obtained from the bank after which police traced the accused and arrested P Sudhakaran (26) and K Pukazhenthi (20) from Thittakudi, Cuddalore.
Based on the investigation, it was found that the accused were found to be involved in three more cases in Tiruppur, Adyar, and Chengalpattu previously and have cheated more than 40 persons since 2022.
They were produced before a magistrate and remanded to judicial custody.